just keeps throwing stuff out of the truck. one after another. >> that just really made my morning. i don't know about you, ali. >> all my stuff gets delivered. it didn't make my morning. good morning, t.j. >> good morning, people. i haven't seen either one of you. >> everything is cool. everything good with you? >> everything is great. i hope you all got that stuff i sent to you all and the fedex guy, we didn't have any issues. i hope it arrived all right. >> on my way to check on it now. just crossing the top of the hour here and the clock is literally ticking on your money. your taxes are going to go up in ten days unless your lawmakers come to the rescue. yes, if they fail, however, the typical american paycheck will shrink by about $1,000 over the next year. but here's the thing, folks, both parties want this. they agree that there should be an extension of this tax holiday. the problem here is that house republicans refuse to settle for

the two-month band aid, the two-month extension that has already been passed by the senate. listen. >> our house gop negotiators are here and ready to work with their counterparts in the senate. >> he's not lucy, i'm not charlie brown. we're not falling for that football stunt, again. okay, lucy and charlie brown. that's what we've come to now, kate. it can be silly season up there sometimes. but just getting more and more silly, it seems. so, is this just all for show and eventually what people want to know, whether or not this is going to get done, is it? >> well, it's a good question. right now there's no clear answer, to be quite honest, as it seems both sides at the moment are more dug in than ever before. as you said, the house rejected the senate compromise that two-month extension. the house rejected that yesterday. that compromise the senate passed over the weekend. speaker boehner was just

announced he'll be meeting with the negotiators that he has appointed to kind of do, kind of go to conference to hash out the differences. he'll be meeting with them a little later this morning, but they will, at this point, be negotiating with themselves since senate majority leader harry reid has made it clear that he will not be reopening negotiations to try to exfend the payroll tax cut for a year until the house moves to pass this short-term extension of two months. as one democratic source put it to me, t.j., we handed the football to the house and house republicans fumbled it. in the meantime, the house and is the senate, all the rest of the members, they're not in town. >> the pressure will have to come from somewhere. the clock is pressure, but also the american public is right now tied up into the holiday plans and holiday and shopping and all this stuff, but still paying attention to this. when they hear their taxes will go up in a matter of days if something isn't done, that is real pressure. there is frustration. i want our viewers to listen to senator john mccain and i'll ask

you about it on the other side. >> it is harming the republican party. it is harming the view if it's possible any more of the american people about congress and we have to get this thing resolved. >> you know, that's pressure, as well. given that now it seems that president obama has the upper hand when it comes to a tax issue. >> well, that's absolutely true. i mean, it's not unexpected that house republicans are going to get heat from congressional democrats, as well as the white house. but maybe unexpected, especially these days that house republicans are also taking heat from not only senator john mccain, but other republican senators, as well, who said the house's move yesterday to reject the senate compromise was irresponsible. add to that that just this morning the "wall street journal" editorial page and influential conservative voice is coming out criticizing house republicans. here are a couple snippets.

given how he, that would be senator mitch mcconnell, the republican leader in the senate and house speaker john boehner have handled the payroll tax debate and they might re-elect the president before the 2012 campaign even begins in earnest. republicans would do best to cut their losses and find a way to extend the payroll holiday, quickly. still, t.j., we have to remind our viewers while miracles can happen up here in the 11th hour, no clear end game in sight at the moment. >> we're starting to use the word miracle, as the that's what it is going to take. we'll check in with you and talk with kate and other folks in d.c. throughout the next couple of hours. i want to turn to the housing market now. you know how bad it's been over the past couple years? how about this, those bad times were even worse than we thought. christine romans, of course, part of our cnn money team. we're learning more about the housing market and it's not good. >> it's interesting because

we're getting new information about the housing market. the national association of realtors, the big trade group, the big lobby for the industry. getting revisions going back to 2007. they now say that they undercounted how many homes were sold. meaning that the bust was even worse than we thought. that's the bad news. the bust was worse than we thought. the good news is in the very near term, t.j., we've been seeing little signs of life in what has been an almost lifeless housing market and i'll tell you what, they're looking for new home sales up about60,000 from november. we also saw housing starts that was much stronger than anyone expected. there's activity, signs of life in condo development and also in apartments and building permits. more people asking, filing for building permits, about 6% there. very low interest rates and you have an economy that may be

slowly healing, so, you're seeing a little bit of activity there. now, what i should say about the foreclosure activity, that still remains very brisk. 6 million people 30 days late on their mortgage. 6 million people right now are late on their mortgage. in november, about half, 46% of all homes sold in november were distressed properties. either short sales or bank-owned properties. so, you still have a lot of this foreclosure backlog to slog through. but in the next 50 minutes or so, we'll get a better, clearer picture of what the state of the housing picture is. t.j.? >> we'll wait for it. christine romans, thank you. i want to turn back to some presidential politics and splarly in iowa, some political intrigue involving the presidential candidates and the conservative group that could have a lot of influence in the upcoming iowa caucuses. backing long-shot republican rick santorum. that's not all, though. bob vander platts asked michele

bachmann to get out of the race. here's what she told us on "american morning." >> there is a big endorsement that was up for grabs in iowa from the family leader and they didn't endorse anybody. and the family leader didn't, but the leader, guy who runs it, bob vander platts, we'll talk to him in half an hour, did end up endorsing rick santorum and these reports that he phoned you and asked you to get out of the race? >> well, that's true. and there would be no reason for us to do that because we've always pulled above rick santorum. plus, the momentum has shifted tremendously this last week after the last debate. we, i also have the endorsement of the former leader of the family leader council and i have the endorsement of the head of concerned women for america here in iowa, as well as over 100 pastors. i have probably the highest level of support among the

evangelical community here in iowa and a caravan of supporters traveling across iowa last week letting people know that i am the best candidate on these issues. we have a very widespread level of support plus, glenn beck has said that he would be voting for me. so, we have a lot of support all across iowa. >> let me bring in our shannon travis, new resident in des moines. he has been there covering this for quite some time. shannon, this sounds like, this back and forth sounds like there is real concern that some of these conservative, christian conservative candidates will start to split some of that vote in iowa, might leave an opening for somebody like mitt romney and that would make a lot of them happy. >> that's exactly the point, t.j. these conservatives are very concerned about two things. one, they want to beat president obama, no secret there. but they also want to oust mitt romney and keep him away and deny him the republican presidential nomination. so, to that end, they are basically trying to rally around who they feel is one

conservative candidate in the republican race that could take romney on. that's really what most of this is about. vander platts going to michele bachmann according to her and her campaign and ask her to either merge her campaign with another or to altogether drop out. now, we want to note that bob vander platt said he didn't ask michele bachmann to drop out and he basically had a conversation with her and other candidates around this idea, again, of picking one candidate, coalescing around one candidate and take on mitt romney so that conservative support, t.j. >> we'll check in with you, again, but he's our guy in des moines. in iowa quite for some time. knows what's happening there. a new cnn poll showing this is going on the republican side, the president's numbers are on the rise. our deputy political director paul steinhauser here with me now. he's been waiting on these numbers to bounce back a bit, what's behind it? >> i think what is behind it

what you were talking to kate bolduan about. extending the payroll tax cut. you know, i think the democrats and the president are getting the better of this political battle. take a look at this. this is the approval rating for the president. look at where it is right now and look where it was last month. 49% up from 45%. we look at this number, the approval rating a lot. it's an indicator of the president's re-election chances and go to the next number, as well. these are interesting, as well. hypothetical matchups. look at this one, the president verse mitt romney, the former massachusetts governor and look where it stands right now. the president with a seven-point lead in a hypothetical matchup. last month, look at this. romney had a four-point margin and in the other matchups, as well. you see the president gaining strength. t.j., remember, the election 11 months away. one more number i want to share with you. brand-new out of iowa. iowa state gazette, remember, we're less than two weeks away from the caucuses.

ron paul in the top spot at 28% and mitt romney at 18% and rick perry at 11%. 13 days to go, t.j., in iowa. who knows how it will end up. >> paul steinhauser, we're thank you, as always. for all the latest political news, you know the spot, cnnpolitics.com. 11 minutes past the hour and let me turn to some weather and a blizzard that hammered the central rockies and central plains. several states bracing for heavy snow today. winter storm conditions shut down highways in five states and reports say at least seven traffic deaths are being blamed on the weather. rob marciano is here. rob, a lot of people traveling this week. a lot of people have taken to the skies and taken to the roads. people want a white christmas, but it can get ridiculous. >> you try to bring them a white christmas and the folks traveling don't like it so much. the white christmas happened in kansas, new mexico, colorado and

the texas panhandle upwards of 14 inches of snow in kansas. we had two feet in parts of new mexico and that has since gone away. what has replaced it is this which is now moving off towards the northeast. this is all for the most part, pockets of cold air in here to start the day, but for the most part, on the warm side of this. the blizzard that was yesterday is now a heat pump for the east coast today and that means that most of this is going to be rain. as we go through time, another system coming down the pipe for the northern rockies and down towards new mexico, as well. denver and parts of new mexico, including albuquerque, will once again be in the grips of a winter storm in the next 36 to 48 hours. this storm goes away and the next one comes in and this one for the east coast has a better chance of getting a little bit more white into the mix. mostly north and west of boston and new york city, but, at least for the folks in northern new england that may bring you the chance for a white christmas, everybody else stays relatively mild. the two planets that nasa

announced they discovered. more on that later in the program. >> did they find life yet? hit me up when they find the life. >> might be a while. 13 minutes past the hour. penn state students heading home for the semester. they're wrapping up now heading home for break, but the jerry sandusky child sex abuse scandal certainly still on a lot of people's minds. we'll talk about the healing process and how the break could help them. we'll talk to the student body president, that's next. also ahead, this is a story that just made me sad when i heard it this morning. a lot of you all have been reacting to it, as well. this should never have to happen. a u.s. soldier has to pawn his purple heart for some extra cash. however, the medal will not be for sale. it will just wait for him there. we'll explain. [ gigi ] try nice 'n easy colorblend foam. our foam penetrates hair and locks in color. for tones and highlights that last. try nice 'n easy colorblend foam.

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16 minutes past the hour. a look at some of the stories making news across country. ten amish men and two amish women indicted in federal court in ohio on hate crime charges. samuel mullet senior leaves a group that he and other suspects held down several other amish men and women and cut off their beards and hair. also in michigan, a u.s. soldier on leave from afghanistan needed some extra cash for the holidays. so he pawned one of his two purple hearts. several people heard about this story and now called that pawnshop and even gone into the pawnshop asking to buy it so they can give it back to the soldier. the pawnshop's owner, however, said it's not for sale. he's keeping it on display and said he will keep it safe until

the soldier comes back for it. also, vernon mackline is playing santa claus in virginia. he grew up there and said he had to go without christmas gifts when he grew up as a child and didn't want that to happen at kids at this preschool so they all got gifts. you can see their reaction there. well, let's turn now, 30 penn state students going to court today facing charges relating to last month's riot in state college. the students took to the streets after the board of trustees announced the firing of head coach joe paterno. in some crowd flipped over a news van. you're seeing some of that video here. paterno, you'll remember, was fired amid the whole jerry sandusky child sex abuse scandal. appealed for calm after that rioting. the undergrad student body president joins us, once again. joins us via skype.

good to check in with you. we talked so much about the campus coming together and students needing to lean on each other to heal. now you're coming up on this christmas break. how much of this you may need to get away from each other and get away from campus and get away from it all a little bit? >> yes, this break is really, really crucial for the students at pep state. great to have each other to lean on one another through all of th, but so much of it now is being home and be with our families and be out of that bubble that is penn state up in state college and reflect on what happened and start the steps to move further towards closure and moving forward as a student body, again. >> how do you think families and friends back home can help in that healing process? do you imagine a lot of people want to go home and continue to talk about it and maybe just a different group of folks or just want to go home and forget about it for a little bit? >> i think it's kind of both ways. i think it depends on the student. i know up at school we

encouraged a lot of conversations to go on between students. that's the best way for us to think through what has happened and really just help each other in the healing process and i think going home, i know, me personally i have sat down and had conversations with my family and it's been really, really important to have their support and their guidance and they bring unique perspective on it because they weren't up in state college and they weren't at penn state when all of this were happening. they have an outsider's perspective which is a beneficial thing, too. i have been urging the students to do what is best for them. if it's talking with their friends and family at home, deaf nltly do that. or just kind of sneaking away and forgetting about it as much as they can, that's also a very good approach to it. >> do you fear the university will forever be tarnished in that when people hear penn state they'll react negatively? of course, they can get over that over time, but is there a fear that people will forever associate something negative with penn state university and en that symbolic nittany lion?

>> i really hope not. i think it's obviously a fear for a lot of students but i'm really encouraged by the support of the entire nation that has really put a lot of their weight behind the students and the alumni that they know that this is a reflection of penn state in general. it's just the actions of a few and we had 157 years of history at penn state and great accomplishments and i hope that the world really sees that and not the scandal that has transpired the last year and a half. >> t.j. bard, another step in that process of healing on that university for the campus, for those students, in particular. you enjoy that holiday break and i'm sure i'll talk to you down the road. >> thanks t.j. 20 minutes past the hour and turn to airline travel. a lot of passengers concerned about how their pilot is feeling. of course, well, after a lot of delays and a lot of airline opposition, the government is now set to issue new rules on pilot fatigue. we're talking to anavization

safety expect to see what the new rules are and if they could help us all. stay with us.

well, every now and then you hear about a commercial pilot stopped at security or pulled out of the cockpit for being drunk. you don't often hear about tired pilots being grounded. a fatigued flight crew is more common and just as dangerous, but today the faa will announce new guidelines on pilot fatigue. some something the airline has been fighting for years. founder of airsafe.com. we have been waiting a few years on these guidelines. we'll get to them here shortly.

what took so long? >> takes a long time to work these things off because in the aviation world, you can't change one rule, one procedure without affecting a lot of others. this is something the government and industry had to work out over time. >> this something groundbreaking here or another step in the process and we'll continue to reevaluate and maybe more changes coming down the road. >> this is revolutionary change. they're not making a change in the amount of rest a pilot would have. they would do things like coordinate the rules between different types of flying. less confusion on the part of pilots and on airlines as to what constitutes a rest period. >> what can we expect to see here, though? suggestions that they'll just add to the amount of time the pilot has to rest between shifts. i mean, what are we expecting here? like you said, not going to be anything major here today. >> what you just said is pretty much one of the major features of this. an increased period of rest before a pilot has to report for

duty. differences in the rules in what constitutes duty time for them to fly or operate a simulator or other things not obvious to the passengers. >> why would the airlines fight this? >> because it's a money thing. when you schedule pilots, something that requires more time between flights. more pilots have to be hired and more pilots have to be on standby and more facilities built to accommodate the increased number of pilots on staff. >> todd curtis, we'll wait for these announcements to come down. we're just about a half hour plus away from this. we'll talk to you, again, thanks so much. >> thank you. 2011 may go down in history as the year of people power from the "occupy movement" to the arab spring in the middle east. stay with me. as the years go by, some questions loom large.

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well, 2011 draws to a close, the year might be best remembered from the "occupy movement" in the u.s. our zain verjee looks back at the moments that we captured that captured our attention. some of these images, we want to warn you, are graphic, however. >> reporter: it was the year of people power. of revolution. >> something i've never seen before. men on horseback and on camels. >> reporter: and bloodshed for doomed dictators. >> no one is going home. no one is going to go home. we're in this until the end, even if it means we're going to die. >> reporter: it started with one man in one country, tunisia who set himself on fire when the

police confiscated his fruit cart leaving him with no way to make money. that set off a movement that kicked out long-time president. a region was gripped with freedom fever fueled by social media, protests erupt in algeria and then yemen. its leader seriously injured when his palace was shelled left the country for treatment and returned and later gave up power. protests in bahrain, morocco, jordan. egyptians filled tahrir square in the center of cairo protesting. >> these protests have gone on all day long. now almost 5:00 in the afternoon and two hours after curfew has begun, but, still, the square is packed with people and these protests will likely go well into the night. >> reporter: their demand, long-time ruler hosni mubarak

has to go. by february he was gone. >> did you ever imagine this would be happenening? >> i always believed that my generation would never make any history. >> reporter: the arab spring then hits libya. the oppositions galvanize to get rid of gadhafi. nato launches air support, the country becomes a war zone. trip tripoli eventually falls. >> this is an important day especially for the rebels who gadhafi says would never be able to break his spirit and never be able to take the city. >> reporter: eight bloody months later, the tyrant was dead. the world's attention now focused on syria, will it be the next domino to fall. even with the brutal crackdown of the regime, demonstrators are on the streets. according to the u.n., at least 5,000 have been killed since march.

some fight for their freedom, others protest for bread and butter. in europe, thousands demonstrate, angry at tough economic conditions. furious protesters in greece battle with riot police for weeks against paycuts and layoffs. >> this is called a suicide earlier on by the bank of greece governor. he said if we don't pass this, the country's gone. >> reporter: in england, peaceful protests turned ugly. discontented youth fought with police and looted and destroyed parts of the city. in september, the "occupy wall street" movements started in new york and soon gripped major capitals around the world, condemning the wealthiest 1% for leaving the other 99% out in the cold. and by december, a glimpse of people power in russia, thousands marched, rejecting

election results frustrated, too, with corruption and economic stagnation. 2011 shattered and rattled the political orders of the world. >> this will send shockwaves throughout the region. >> reporter: setting in motion a wave of discontent, the promises to watch for the years to come. zain verjee, cnn, london. giving you a look at some of the stories making headlines. the house has adjourned for holiday break with the two-month extension of the payroll tax cut. with no further action, the tax cut will expire in ten days. your taxes will go up in ten days unless something is done. state department says the talks mostly focused on possible u.s. food aid to the country. and a russian spacecraft blasted off today headed for the three-member space station.

but, that's not the space news we are really concerned about. today, is it, let me go ahead and bring in rob marciano to explain this to me. we have found a couple of earths. >> all right, earth-like planets. this kepler mission which is a telescope outside of earth has discovered a few planets and been making news, really, the last couple of weeks. this is the rendition of this particular solar system, which has about five planets and a couple of them, namely we're calling them kepler 20e and 20f, not very creative, i know. the big news with this is that both of them are very close to the earth in size. 20e is smaller than venus and 20f is actually the closest as far as the size of earth is concerned. let's start with 20f. little bit bigger than earth and that has folks excited.

a little bit farther away from that solar system sun or star, but it's really close. it only takes about 20 days for it to go around. the temperature is 800 degrees. that's a little bit toasty. you're not going to find a whole lot of life there. kepler 20e is closer. they think a lot of volcanic activity in there and not a whole lot of atmospheric action going on. these are artist renditions. this is what we think it looks like. not necessarily what it looks like. slightly warmer than the earth, you better believe it. temperature over 1,400 degrees. it is slightly smaller than the earth. so, we don't think these particular planets have life as we know it. the deal is the last time kepler made news had an earth hp like planet in the habitable zone. just close enough from the sun. these are the right size, but a little too close. we're looking for the goldie locks and that's when i can call you, t.j., and say we found some

life. >> little on the warm side. >> bring your bikini. >> all right, rob, thank you, as always. we're about 35 minutes past the hour now. i know rob is going to stick around for this. we have snooki news. the company she separated ways with earlier this year sued for $7 million. my name is heather knight. robots that can interact with people in a human way. when i tell people that i make robots, they're usually like, oh, wow, that's really cool. and when i tell people i make social robots, usually they're a little bit confused at first and i found the best way to talk about what i actually do is by example. [ male announcer ] sometimes a hint

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well, 38 minutes past the hour now and one of the real housewives is now going from reality star to actress. let me bring in our

entertainment correspondent kareen wynter. she is in l.a. for us. kareen, hello to you. is it fair to say all those housewive shows and all the housewives this one has gained the most fame and notoriety of all? >> yeah, absolutely. she always brings the drama, so maybe she'll bring the ratings in and people will tune in. we are talking about the show, "glee." they get the best guest stars. we've seen britney spears on the show and now, yes, nene leakes will play a swim coach. they broke the news during an appearance on bravo's "watch what happens live" how nene's character gets along with the rest of the faculty. hopefully mesh a whole lot better and the show hopes that she can help fight off declining ratings. they dipped a little bit. "glee" still doing well but lost

a quarter of its audience last season. nene is going to be on there. >> let's go from one notorious reality star to another. snooki the news not so good news for her. >> this is not good news at all. they were supposed to team up, t.j., and produce a slew of snooki-related merchandise. while snooki sued to get out of the deal. she wanted nothing to do with it saying they didn't hold up their end of the deal in terms of branding opportunities they were talking about. they're planning on suing snooki for that $7 million because, t.j., they say she cheated on them with negotiating with other brands behind their back. according to "new york post" which broke the story, they lined up deals to sell snooki-style shoes, watches, lingerie and, t.j., get this, school supplies. snooki does say she wants to get

her degree in veterinary science. >> stop it. >> i'm not making this up. school supplies. interesting items for students as they're whipping out snooki pencils, she's no idol. before we bash her, she wants to get her degree in veterinary science. school supplies, i don't know how much of a branding opportunity that would have been. >> as we see this video of her in a ring fighting. nothing says education like snooki. kareen, always good to see you. thank you, as always. you might want more information on everything breaking in the entertainment world. watch our folks on "showbiz tonight." christmas not too far away, but, still, coming a little early for two little brothers. santa is right there when their one wish comes true. you need to see this, next. ♪

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give you a look at stories making news across country. jews around the world, celebrating hanukkah. group gathered near the white house to light the national menorah. also y know you just ordered something online, sending that expepsive gift to somebody for christmas and this is how it's going to be delivered. yep, you see that.

this video uploaded on youtube shows a fedex delivery guy tossing of all things a computer monitor over the gate and, look at this, yep, that's in southern california. the customer posted this video to youtube says that computer monitor was broken when he opened it. you don't say. fedex tells cnn it has taken disciplinary action against that employee. oh, look at the little guys. two little boys they got what they were asking santa for at the time. they were asking for mommy. dawn mccracken bruce surprised her 2 and 4-year-old sons. this was at a mall, as you see yesterday. she had just returned from duty in iraq.

and in honor of the holidays, cnn is highlighting acts of generosity for our giving in focus series. today we look at hospice care and the dedicated folks who provide it. our photo journalist followed a hospice volunteer in maryland as she cared for her dying patient. >> it's me. hi. if i do more in-patient care where you go into people's homes and usually give the care giver a break. it's too early for your pills. with each patient it's different. you just have to find out what they're comfortable with. what do you want to do today? how about your nails? with joyce it's that she's not alone in this journey that she's on. give me your hand. which one should we start on? people are there for her and care about her and want to make her life easier.

>> good afternoon, montgomery hospice. >> i'm looking for volunteers who don't look for fame and don't look for being important, who don't look for being wanting to be loved. we're looking for somebody who is truly wanting to give back and understand that the person they meet will die. >> i need the oxygen. >> you need oxygen, okay. >> for many patients, it is the last in their life. >> it's people like bonnie that will bend over backwards and do things for me. >> i now look at death differently as being a part of the whole life process. and i don't think i understood that until i started doing hospice work. >> yes. wonderful relationship. >> life is a journey and death is the end of that journey. >> what we're doing is trying to, as we say in hospice, gentle

the journey. >> i wouldn't have made it this far without her tender loving care. >> you can catch cnn's giving in focus special christmas day hosted by our tom foreman. [ male announcer ] you are a business pro. premier of the packed bag.

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checking some other stories that will be making news today. at 1:30 eastern a memorial marking the bombing of the pan a.m. flight. at 2 clock eastern time police in maine will give an update about the search for a 20-month-old girl who's been missing since friday. at 2:00 eastern the epa plans to make a significant announcement. they're expected to give new restrictions on mercury pollution in the air. as we get close to the top of the hour we're following lots of developments. let's start with kate baldouan. >> reporter: the latest twist, the house has rejected the senate's short-term extension and the pressure is mounting on congress, specifically on republicans. where does the steering contest

go next? i'll have more at the top of the hour. >> i'm barbara starr at the pentagon. we hear an awful lot about hazing and bullying, but in the war zone with u.s. troops bullying and hazing each other, a young solder apparently sent right over the edge. i'll have details coming up. >> reporter: i'm alina cho in new york. he's not a hollywood star but he is one of the best known names on the planet. he's bill clinton. my one-on-one with the former president in the next hour of "cnn newsroom." >> alina, you like us arkansasans. also coming up next hour, someone just invested megamillions in twitter. a lot of people are ticked off because of who in particular it is. we'll explain in conversation coming your way. stay with us.

jeff, too many bulls. >> there are a lot of them. >> everybody gets to play. >> if you're breaking a record you're in a ball game. >> when you're a little kid, we're all winners. >> the bull names are funky. there's the sugar, the orange, the rose. we know all of that. before we get to january you have to get through some whacky bowl names.

there's the idaho potato bowl. the san diego county credit union point set yeah bowl. bell helicopter armed forces bowl. and if you haven't heard of the restaurant chain beef o 'brady's bowl sounds odd. battling it out in that bowl last night, the quarterback went deep for andre done son. touchdown. marshall wins. 20-10. the thundering heard are the champions. derek rose is getting a big present under his tree. a new $95 million contract for the raining mvp. the bulls will make it official. he looked great last night in a preseason win against the pacers feeding teammates and scoring on his own. jay leno is glad they're back. he's giving kobe bryant a hard time about his divorce.

>> well, a lot of big basketball news happening now. chris paul moved to the clippers. lamar odom moved. kobe bryant moving into a studio apartment. it's everywhere. >> that's cool. >> it is. >> that's cool. >> what do you do? >> that's sports. >> jeff, good to see you. getting close to the top of the hour. if you're exp egting something special delivered to your home this week, take a look at this first from jeanne moos. >> reporter: 'tis the season for packages. next time you open one intact, be grateful this didn't happen to it. this was a computer monitor tossed over a gate in southern california by a fed ex delivery man, but then the surveillance camera video was delivered to youtube and made the news. >> oh! >> reporter: now fed ex is saying we have seen the video and frankly we were all shocked. that's not the only dropoff memorialized on youtube.

>> handle with care. oh, yeah, just like that. ground service. i get it. ground. throw the border patrol on the ground. >> ups can toss it underhand. >> it can toss it overhand. it can toss it like a horseshoe, fences and gates are the delivery man's nemesis. as a driver posted from a delivery point of view, gates are hostile. don't like it? get rid of the gate. the guys videoing this ups delivery man compared his technique to loading garbage. >> do you think there's anything that can be damaged in there? >> reporter: of course, it could be worse. at least they're not ace ventura. of all of the special deliveries

we saw, none was more special than this by fed ex. there were sparks coming off the box and the man who was shooting -- >> this guy has no idea that he is pushing an oven. >> reporter: as for the computer monitor heaved over the gate, the person who posted it says the monitor was broken and it's sad because he was home at the time if the delivery man had just rung the bell. i'm sure what you're probably worrying is does this guy still have a job? fed ex tells cnn we have ided the employee involved. he is being handled according to our internal delivery policies. >> federal express, when it absolutely positively has to be there overnight. >> reporter: they said overnight, not in one piece. now that everyone has a camera, it doesn't pay for the delivery elofs to get sloppy. ♪ >> reporter: jeanne moos, cnn,

new york. well, the clock is ticking on your money. ten days left and your taxes are going to go up unless lawmakers do something. the typical american paycheck will shrink about $1,000 over the next year if lawmakers do not act before the new year. both parties, get this, they actually want the extension. the problem is, house republicans refuse to settle for the two-month extension that was passed by the senate. listen. >> next stop is clear. i think president obama needs to call on senate democrats to go back into session, move to get a conference and to sit down and resolve this bill as quickly as possible. >> i saw today that one of the house republicans referred to what they're doing as, quote, high stakes poker. he's right about the stakes, but this is not spoker. this is not a game.

>> our kate badlouan is on capitol hill and dan lothian at the white house. kate, let me start with you. the most important things to americans right now, explain the path, the thing that needs to happen over the next ten days and how it's going to happen to prevent taxes from going up for 160 million workers in this country. >> reporter: it's not entirely clear how the end game or how this will play out. here's why. because the log jam, the stand still, standoff, whatever you want to call it is still in place. they're still just staring at each other saying we have acted and it's now your turn. house republicans say that they have acted as rejecting the senate compromise measure for a two-month extension. they rejected that yesterday. house republicans say the ball is in the senate's court. however, senate democrats say they're not going to reopen negotiations towards a one-year deal as you well noted. both sides want the house to pass the two-month extension.

they're staring each other down. meantime, pressure is mounting not only on congress understandably, but also specifically on house republicans. won't surprise you that democrats in the white house are picking up the pressure. house republicans are feeling the heat from that direction but also senate republicans who supported the compromise passed in the senate have come out to criticize house republicans calling them of yesterday irresponsible and add to that just this morning "the wall street journal" editorial page, influential voice had an op ed saying here in part, i'll read you a couple partsz, given how he, who is top republican in the senate, mitch mcconnell andon boehner have handled the payroll tax debate, we wonder if they might end up re-electing the president. at this stage republicans would do best to cut their losses and find a way to extend the payroll holiday quickly. still, t.j., no way to tell viewers yet if or if not this

payroll tax cut will be extended. >> let me bring dan lothian in. kate, stay with me. dan, nobody it appears wants american's taxes to go up january 1, including the president, including republicans, and democrats on the hill. but from a political standpoint, is the president and the white house just loving this right now? >> reporter: well, look. they're not going to stand in front of the camera and say, we're loving this. when you prod them on whether or not the president stands to gain from this politically, what they'll tell you is that what the president is most concerned about is that he wants to make sure that taxes do not go up on middle class americans. make no mistake here, the president does stand to benefit from this. you look overall as the numbers -- popularity numbers or approval ratings for congress continue to go down, you see that the numbers are going up for the president compared to last month. so they see that there's value in the president coming out of

this and house republicans end up getting the punch for it. >> so what's the plan today? is there a plan today? meetings or anything? conversations? i'll ask from your end first, dan. maybe, kate, you can chime in. what is the plan for today, the next couple of days? everybody high-tailed it out of there. a few of the leadership left to do the work. dan? >> reporter: that's right. behind the scenes a lot of back and forth continues. one of the things that the white house is doing is essentially launching a publicity campaign here pushing back on congress trying to get the public on their side to weigh in. they're breaking down the numbers saying that the average family who makes $50,000 a year stands to lose about $40 every paycheck. so they put out the word to the twitter verse for people to weigh in using the $40 hashtag. here's an example of some things that have come back. one person saying, quote, $40 is a third of my student loan, half of my groceries and gas money

for the week. another writes kids' school lunch $40. finally $40 is the amount that's in my bank account right now. and then of course president obama as you heard yesterday when he popped into the briefing room pointing the finger at lawmakers saying that now's not the time to play games. now's not the time to play politics, that they should put their disagreements aside, focus on where they can find compromise and get a deal. of course, house republicans blaming the president saying they don't like this two-month extension. >> kate, 15, 20 seconds. work being done on the hill? what's the plan today? >> reporter: as dan was noting, kind of the pressure, the publicity pressure taking place. that's happening on capitol hill as well. both the house and senate, majority of members, have left town as the reality is, there's not much to negotiate at this point as the leaders are dug in. house speaker john boehner, he's holding a meeting with the members of his party that he has appointed to this conference that they want to go to to hash out the differences between the

house and senate. they're going to be negotiating with themselves today because the senate democrats have made it very clear that they're not going to appoint members from their side as they're not willing to re-open negotiations until this two-month extension is pushed through. >> all right. dan lothian, kate baldouan, thank you. we'll check in. at six minutes past the hour i want to turn back to presidential politics. newt gingrich picking up a couple of endorsements. jim acosta is keeping an eye on this for us today. jim, gingrich, he kind of, i don't want to say peeked, but he got to a point in the polls and now it seems he's been slipping. he needs a couple of endorsements. will these help him out any? >> they might. it's been a tough week for newt gingrich. he's rolling out some endorsements today, pretty important endorsements from the speakers of the houses in both iowa and new hampshire. so i guess it's the speakers endorsing the speaker. so that's good news for newt gingrich because he lost out on a major endorsement in iowa

yesterday when bob fanderplats who is a very influential social person in that state went with rick santorum. he told me personally that part of this was because of concerns inside the evangelical community out there in iowa about newt gingrich's personal life. it was a tough blow for newt gingrich. he's just been having a tough time out there on the campaign trail. every day he's getting hammered with these negative attack ads, many coming from a super pac that is friendly to mitt romney's campaign. then out of nowhere gingrich went into an iowa grocery store yesterday where he was essentially accosted by a random voter who came up to him and told him in no uncertain terms what he thought of the former speaker. >> luck killy it's a free country. >> so it's been that kind of a day, that kind of a week for

newt gingrich. he was taking some questions from reporters later on that evening where he was asked about all of the negative attacks, all of the trouble that he's had in this campaign and the former speaker said he's not backing down. >> i am the most insurgent campaign since ronald regan. the establishment deeply wishes i would go away. i hate to tell them this, but i'm not leaving. >> there's good reason for newt gingrich not to leave the scene. he is doing quite well in a poll that has just come out in iowa. it's the latest poll showing where things stand in that state. yes, while ron paul is on top there at 28%, that's very good news for the libertarian republican, newt gingrich is hot on his heels. so after all of these negative attacks, newt gingrich is still hanging in there within the margin of error. mitt romney a good almost 10 points behind newt gingrich. so the former speaker of the house has a very good shot at winning that state, t.j., and that makes this race very interesting. >> all right. jim acosta for us in washington.

we'll see you again here soon. while all that's going on on the republican side, president obama may have a little something to cheer about this holiday. new cnn orc poll shows the president's approval rating has climbed some 5 percentage points since last month. his disapproval numbers also edged down. our latest poll also shows the president building on his lead over potential leader mitt romney. the president enjoys a similar lead over another republican if the election were held today. congressman ron paul with the gop nominee, our poll shows obama winning 52% to 45%. we'll have more coming up at the bottom of the hour. we'll check in with mark preston for his insight into what's causing the president's new-found popularity. we're getting a bit of a reaction check on wall street today. turns out 9 recession in the housing market was worse than we thought. the national association of

realtors is going back and revising past reports on home sales. if he lish sha taylor at the new york stock exchange, we knew it was bad, now they're telling us it's worse. >> yeah. they're making these revisions all the way back to 2007. for people out in the united states, i don't think this is much of a surprise because they know how bad it really was. nevertheless, we saw the numbers today. they did increase by about 12%. it's a question of where we came from. so it was up a rate of 4.4 million versus 4.9 million in the previous month. the number really is significant. you have to take a look at what is considered a healthy market. healthy market would be considered 6 million. although the number is up, it's coming off of that place that was a lot lower than people expected. so we're moving in the right direction. i guess the point that could be made is we were sicker than we thought but we're still getting better. that's the good news in this

report. t.j.? >> i appreciate the good news to wrap it up at the end. how is all of this news today affecting what we're seeing in the markets? >> well, to tell you the truth, the market really isn't take iing a look at this economic number. markets are still taking a look at what's going on in europe. they're focused on the european central bank and the kind of lending that it's actually made announcement about today. the problem with that is although they are admitting that they need to lend the money, the question is why they need to lend so much. that's what the market is focusing on. the dow is down about a third of 1%. the nasdaq is getting hurt today. it's down 1.5%. the concern is obviously that the tech sector is going to fare worse than people had first anticipated. >> thank you as always. it's about 12 minutes past the hour. coming up, months after a solder's body was found in an afghan guard tower, eight other

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well, as we come up on quarter past the hour. i want you to listen to something here in a moment. it's from one of the leaders in the house who is the democratic

whip there in the house. we just heard this from him. you know this back and forth is going on about that payroll tax cut that in ten days at the beginning of the year your taxes are going to go up unless congress acts but there is a back and forth. some of them already gone home. negotiations not really going on. listen to stenny hoyer. you'll be able to hear this. just made this on the house floor. >> the house stands adjourned until 10 a.m. on friday. >> mr. speaker. mr. speaker. >> the senate bill. >> mr. speaker, we'd like to ask for unanimous consent that we bring up the bill to extend the tax cut for 160 million americans as you walk off the floor, mr. speaker. you're walking out. you're walking away just as so many republicans have walked away from middle class taxpayers. the unemployed and very, frankly as well, from those who will be seeking medical assistance from their doctors, 48 million senior citizens. we regret, mr. speaker, that you

have walked off the platform without addressing the issue of critical importance to this country and that is the continuation of the middle class tax cut, the continuation of unemployment benefits for those at risk of losing them, and the continuation of the access to doctors for all those 48 million seniors who rely on them daily for their health. and i am pleased to yield to my friend, mr. van holland. >> so that just gives you an idea of the tone on washington, d.c., right now. again, your taxes are going to go up january 1st if they don't do something. the senate has passed a version that only extends it for two months but, still, that gets us through the next to the top of the year. the house has refused to take up that measure. republicans in the house want a full one-year extension, but at this point there are no negotiations going on. most members of congress have already high tailed it out of town for the holiday.

we don't know where we stand at this point. in ten days we know taxes are going to go up unless congress does something. we'll keep you posted. 17 minutes past the hour. turn to a story of eight u.s. soldiers now facing some serious charges in connection with a fellow solder's death. denny chen was found in a guard tower in afghanistan with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. barbara starr joins us now from the pentagon. now we're hearing, that's not exactly what happened. >> reporter: well, there appears to be much more to this story now. it is not very easy to listen to. 19-year-old private danny chen in fact by all accounts did die in october in southern afghanistan in a guard tower of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, but the question, of course, is what drove him to it? how did he get to that point? now today eight u.s. soldiers, his fellow soldiers, charged in connection with his death, charged for their conduct in the

days leading up to his death. we are told that the charges include everything from negligent homicide, involuntary manslaughter, battery, wreckless endangerment and cumulative communicating a threat. the blunt bottom line is this young solder was bullied and hazed to the point he felt he had no other options. in a letter to his family, i want to quote from it, danny chen said, quote, they ask if i'm from china a few times a day. they also called out my name chen in a goat-like voice sometimes for no reason. no idea how it started, but it's just best to ignore it. but apparently the hazing, the bullying solder on solder got much worse in the subsequent days and weeks. danny chen just simply could not cope with it. now eight soldiers are charged for their conduct. they have been moved to an undisclosed location in southern

afghanistan for their own safety. t.j.? >> barbara starr with a disturbing update from the pentagon. thank you as always. turn now to other stories making news across country. ten amish men and two amish women have now been indicted in federal court in ohio on hate crime charges. sam mull mullet held down several other amish men and women and cut off their beards and hair. also in michigan, it should never come to this. a u.s. solder on leave from afghanistan needed a little extra cash for the holidays so he ended up pawning his purple heart. now he has two of them so he pawned one but still several people hearing this story, they stopped by the store and even had been calling that pawn shop wanting to buy it just so they could give back to him. the pawn shop's owner says, however, he will keep it. he'll keep it safe, keep it on display even. he's not going to sell t. going

to make sure it's available when that solder does come back. >> vernon mak lynn playing santa claus. he said he had to go without christmas figts on a number of occasions when he was a child. didn't want that to happen to kids at this preschool so he made a merry christmas for them. let's turn to some weather now. it's going to be severe. some places affecting some of your holiday travel plans. a blizzard slammed the nation's mid section. it has now moved on. montana, wyoming, colorado, new mexico. they can expect hefy snow today. how complicated are things going to get? >> as always, depends where you are and what you have planned. a lot of folks want a white christmas during the holidays. then again if you're traveling, especially over the hills to grandma's house, you don't want that happening. the blizzard has moved off. most is in the form of rain. what is the bliz jarred is a heat pump with tropical moisture and warmth. even though we've seen some

spots that have had some shrek spots as far as pockets of subfreezing air, mous is being scoured out. the next system about to drop in the northern rockies. winter storm warnings and watches have been posted for this area, including denver and new mexico. it got hammered with this last blast of winter. lesser amounts expected for this next storm. what happens beyond that is this storm currently heading towards the northeast rockets off towards the canadian maritimes. the next storm that's dropping in will be riding up the appalachians. it will take a similar path. won't be quite as mild. there is a chance of some folks seeing a little bit of snow out of this, but mostly it's going to be north and west of the bigger cities. it will be wet on the back side of this. that is your best chance, i think, for seeing a bit of a white christmas. it is mild out there. because of the mild air we're seeing some pockets of fog and there are some delays at the airports because of that. we'll probably see that tomorrow. today's high in new york city, 58 degrees.

61 degrees in d.c. winter officially arrives around midnight. it doesn't feel like that. t.j., back over to you. >> thank you as always, kind sir. 22 minutes past the hour the international space station getting three new crew members soon. >> the international space station. >> yeah, this rocket launch this morning carrying u.s. and european astronauts as well as a russian cosmonaut. the space craft will dock with the space station on friday morning. also coming up here, everybody's just all a twitter right now, literally, over a saudi prince's big investment. we're talking about it and the fears from this new investment in twitter. >> i love this work. anybody that had the life i've had, anybody that was given the gift that i was given by the american people, you'd be crazy not to do it. and a little later our alina

cho sits down with former president bill clinton talking about his charitable work since leaving the white house. 6 [ older brother ] hey, that's the last crescent. [ younger brother ] oh, do you want it? yeah. ok, we'll split it. [ female announcer ] made fresh, so light... ...buttery and flaky... this is half. that is not half. guys i have more. [ female announcer ] do you have enough crescents?

a billion air saudi prince puts his money on social media buying a bik stake in twitter. news is raising some eyebrows now. douglas rushkoff is a professor at nyu. he wrote an opinion piece from cnn.com saying should twitter fear the sawedy prince. thank you for being here. do we have anything to be worried about here? >> we may have something to be worried about. not worried about saudi arabian influence on twitter. if anything, i think saudi

arabia would be more worried about twitter's influence on its own population. i guess you could say it might be possible that the saudi prince witnessing arab spring was made more aware of the power and promise of social media, less as a revolutionary tool than as an economic powerhouse for the future. >> well, why not be worried? you said not really worried about the saudi prince who's making a $300 million investment in twitter. why shouldn't people be somewhat concerned or raise an eyebrow that maybe they try to have some influence and have some influence on the direction of twitter which has played such a role in these up risings? >> well, you could think that except he's also got investments in citigroup, he's got investments in apple. when i look at him and the group, the investment group that he's working with, it looks much more like what he's trying to do is capitalize on the kinds of

ipos that groupon and linked in, that facebook is going to have some day. it seems in that sense much more earnest, if you will. what you have to remember is that money launders almost by definition. in other words, there's nothing weirder about a saudi prince investing in a technology that might bring down his empire as an american investing without even knowing it through their retirement plan in companies that might be addicting their kids to cigarettes or alcohol or we're all invested in weapons manufacturing. whether we agree or not with the oil industry, we're paying for that too. it's almost as if money creates this disconnect between the investor and whatever it is they're investing in. >> douglas, i know what your answer is going to be. this is all about money. why would twitter allow this and get into business with this guy if they know what the perception is going to be snnchts twitter doesn't have a choice who they get into business with.

once you sell shares, they can be bought by anybody. it's not that the prince is investing in twitter as such. it's not like twitter is getting the money. the people who are getting the money are people who already invested in twitter. it's $300 million of shares that are out there. once you sell your company, once you have sold it, you've sold it. you don't have control over who's going to own it after that. >> all right. we will see what happens down the road. an interesting read. it has an article that you can see on cnn.com/opinions. should twitter fear the saudi prince. thanks so much. as we get close to the bottom of the hour now all eyes on iowa. michele bachmann says do not count her out but a big endorsement for rick santorum has him feeling pretty good about his chances as well. do either one of them have a good shot? your political buzz is next. [ male announcer ] you are a business pro.

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give you a look at some of the stories making headlines as we come up on the bottom of the hour. the u.s. has been in contact with north korea's government. the talks mostly focused on possible u.s. food aid to the country. the house has adjourned for its holiday break with no vote on the senate-passed two-month extension of the payroll tax cut with no further action by lawmakers the tax cut will expire in ten days. your taxes will go up. also report just out shows home sales during the housing bust were worse than we thought. in fact, existing home sales between 2007 and 2010 were 14.3%

worse than first reported. we turn now to your political buzz. your rapid fire look at the best political topics of the day. three questions, 30 seconds on the clock. who's playing today? maria cardona. sirius xm political talk show host and comedian, pete dominick. crystal wright joining us for the first time here on the buzz. pete, maria, y'all take it easy on her, will you? she's the republican -- >> she can take care of herself. >> she's the republican communications consultant for baker. let's start with this "wall street journal" op ed asking how in the world republicans managed to lose a tax issue to obama. maria, let me start with you. can we go that far yet? are we serious now, obama has won a tax issue? >> we are certainly -- it's certainly looking like that, t.j. i think what's interesting is republicans are clearly looking at this as a high stakes

political game. as the president said, they're certainly high stakes. this isn't a game. especially for the 160 million americans whose taxes are about to go up january 1st. the house republicans, this is going to be political krip tow night for them, t.j., if they don't come back and deal with this. 160 million americans. if republicans don't deal with this now and don't let those taxes go up, they're going to find out pretty quickly how many electoral votes 160 million americans zblep crystal, you get in there now. tax issue. this is supposed to be the one republicans win on. >> yeah, i think "the wall street journal" got it wrong this morning. the biggest fiasco is barak obama's presidency. where "the wall street journal" got it half right is that speaker boehner and mitch mcconnell, the republicans need to get their message together and remind americans that under president obama we're sitting in the worse recession since the great depression. that's what they need to hammer home. boehner needs to say, look, senate, we passed the bill. you need to work with our plan.

>> pete? >> it's that kind of talk that people just nod their heads at, what crystal just said. this is ridiculous. we've entered bizarro land. is john boehner going to fund planned parenthood? >> obama is bizarro. >> a tax cut for working people. these are the people, they hate the man more than they love the country. 52% of eye owe juans just answered. they don't believe he was born here. that's what this is about. this is the tail wagging the dog. seriously. these house members that are leading boehner, boehner is not leading them. they're leading him. this is bizarre. >> pete showed up today fired up. i like it. >> let's have a real conversation. people are going to get coal in their stocking for christmas. >> let's turn now to rick santorum. he got a big endorsement. let's go to iowa here. pete referenced it. his campaign is surging.

michele bachmann, she lost the endorsement that he picked up but she says she's actually the one to watch. listen to her. >> most polls have you in and around fourth place. these are very fluid polls right now. that is a far cry from where you were in august where really you were thought of as the front-runner in iowa. what do you think about where you stand right now? >> well, that's because i won the iowa straw poll. >> you did. >> most important election we've had so far in this race. now what we're seeing is that after the last debate that was held in sioux city, we are a bullet racing up the charts. the momentum has switched. >> racing up the charts. crystal, let me bring you in. bachmann and santorum, of course they're supposed to say this as we get close to iowa, that they're the ones to surge. do they have a real chance here? >> i've got to say no. i think santorum and bachmann are kind of like jack and jill went up the hill. anything can happen in iowa right now. it's fluid. they're not in the top three.

i really just don't see it happening for those two. i think bachmann, while she won the iowa straw poll, she's very compelling in debates, got a strong message like santorum, but i don't see it happening for either one of them. i think they're uphill battle here. >> maria, do you agree? neither one has a real chance? >> no, i don't agree. i'll say they do have a chance for three reasons. iowa voters don't like to be told through conventional wisdom, momentum or polls what it is they should decide. they're going to decide. a lot of times they go against all three. that's number one. number two, more than 50% of iowa voters still haven't made up their mind, t.j. who knows what they'll be feeling that day when they go into the caucuses to vote. number three, i think a lot of them are looking for the anybody but romney candidate as well as now perhaps the anybody but gingrich candidate because of all of his baggage. >> pete? >> listen, first of all, this organization that endorsed rick santorum, the family leader,

t.j., you and everybody, all of us in the media need to start calling any organization that is named after the family, the family research council, the focus on the family, the family leader, they hate families. they don't like families. they don't like equality. they're biggots. rick santorum really believes this stuff. president obama fakes it that he's evolving on the gay issue. we in the media need to start calling them big dp ots. they don't think gay and lesbians should have equality. >> pete, i'm going to have to call you after this segment clearly. >> they wouldn't let you get married in the first half of the century. these people wouldn't let you get married to a white woman. >> well, i'm not. that's another story. i'm going to go to our buzzer beater for the day now. i'm going to get some help from jay leno on this one, but the president, he's been rising in the polls. yes, even late night comedians are noticing. >> president obama's approval rating actually went up last

month to 49%. now let me ask you something. is it me or does it seem like his ratings go up every time there's a republican debate? do you notice that? it's like voters are going, hey, maybe this guy doesn't suck so bad after all. >> okay. that's his theory. maria, what is yours? what's behind the president's jump in the polls? >> i think that's part of it because as americans look at these debates, they really see just how extremist and how far to the right these republican candidates are and how wrong for the country they are. it's one reason his poll numbers are rising. the second reason is the whole tax cut issue and how this president is on the side of the middle class while the gop especially house republicans are playing politics and putting their politics before policies that are good for the middle class. that's helping this president right now. >> crystal, what do you think it is? >> if anybody's extremist, it's barak obama and his failed presidency. the fact of the matter is any of the last standing presidential

republican candidates can mop barak obama up in a one-on-one debate. after americans get out of their holiday stupor, polls gup and they come down. come january 1st they'll be like why do we support this guy again? he's done nothing for us. >> pete, take it home for us. >> listen, as long as terrible dictators keep dieing, unemployment slowly goes down, nobody's beating president obama. the sad thing is this lineup of circuit acts that are running, one serious candidate who would be a great president, his name is jon huntsman. no one gives him a chance. why? because he doesn't hate president obama. he doesn't believe that president obama is a marxist, socialist who is born in another country. that's why. >> pete -- >> no president has gotten re-elected -- >> hey, hey, hey, we have rules. we'll forward you another copy, crystal. >> okay. >> crystal, good to have you here. we hazed you a little bit. thanks so much. i'll talk to all of you soon.

we'll have more politics this hour. the bottom of the hour president obama's surge we were talking about. we'll check in with mark preston. that's coming your way in about 15 minutes from now. also, he touched the lives of millions of people since he left the white house. >> i love this work. anybody that had the life i've had, anybody that was given the gift that i was given by the american people, you'd be crazy not to do it. our alina cho one on one with the former president. for their clients' futures. never taking a bailout. helping generations achieve dreams. buy homes. put their kids through college. retire how they want to. ameriprise. the strength of america's largest financial planning company. the heart of 10,000 advisors working with you, one-to-one. together, for your future. ♪

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well, as part of our special series, big stars, big giving, we shine the spotlight on celebrities who are giving back to causes dear to their heart. it's something that's been near and dear to alina cho's heart. we think of, yes, he's a politician. there's no doubt, this guy is a celebrity as well. >> that's right. i know you've known i've interviewed many celebrities. he is not a hollywood star, you're right. he is certainly one of the best known names on the planet. we're talking about bill clinton, the former u.s. president. the founder of the clinton foundation. for a decade as a private

citizen he's been using his influence to change the world. the thing is, he says it's changed his life too. >> reporter: no matter where he goes, president bill clinton is greeted like a rock star. the man many democrats call the best president in modern times is working to make the modern world a better place to live. >> reporter: you had it in your mind that you didn't want to spend the rest of your life wishing. >> i was still president. i enjoy talking about what happened when i was president. i don't mind telling those stories, but you just need to keep doing something new. >> reporter: that urge to do something new inspired the former president to open an office in harlem and create the william j. clinton foundation. today the clinton foundation celebrates what it calls a decade of difference. >> reporter: 400 million people impacted. do you think that's incredible

or, boy, there's a lot more to be done? >> both. this little pill will save about 200,000 lives. driving down the price of aids medicine, driving down the price of malaria medicine. building up health care systems that countries can afford. people ask me all the time are you doing more good now? i have to live a long time to do as much for as many people as when i was in government. >> reporter: but you can go places? >> but i can go places and do things. >> how many sites should we have? >> reporter: as the u.n. special envoy to haiti, he's visited the country 20 times since 2009. his foundation has raised $23 million toward the rebuilding effort, helped fund programs to fight childhood obesity in 13,000 u.s. schools, established a mentoring program for entrepreneurs, then there's the clinton global initiative. >> we wanted to be better. >> reporter: since 2005 the annual meeting has drawn a wide

range of people. 150 heads of state, 20 know bell lawyer reit's. everyone from bill gates to actors like matt damon. >> i try to bring people together who know things i don't, who can do things i can't. >> reporter: 2100 commitments have come out of the clinton global initiative. when fully funded they'll be valued at $69.2 billion. >> you are so beautiful. >> reporter: working tirelessly to make a difference, traveling all over the world. >> reporter: 150 countries, more than that. >> i love this work. anybody that had the life i've had, anybody that was given the gift that i was given by the american people, you'd be crazy not to do it. >> reporter: and, t.j., president clinton likes to joke that it actually gave him something to do after leaving the white house. meanwhile, tomorrow i'll be speaking to actor and comedian will ferrell.

of course, fans everywhere know him as the man who makes them laugh. he also just as easily shows a serious side. he works tirelessly for someone special charity to help cancer survivors. i'm very much looking forward to bringing that to you and the rest of our viewers tomorrow. >> there's the president obama m promo. alai alaina, always enjoy seeing you. coming up next, everybody has a christmas wish. this one actually comes true. >> yeah! >> you can't beat this stuff. a soldier mom arrives just in time for the holidays. looky, looky. it's so easy. now this might even impress aunt martha. pillsbury crescent wrapped brie. holiday ideas made easy.

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give you a look at some of the stories making news cross-country. check that out. jews across the world are celebrating hanukkah. a group gathered near the white house to light the national menorah. the tradition dates back to 1979 when president carter was in office. also, be warned. is this how your stuff is going to be delivered? video uploading. yup, just toss it right over the gate. this is on youtube. shows a fed ex guy tossing of all things a computer monitor

over a gate. this is in southern california. there it is again. the customer posted this on the video. says, of course, it was broken when he opened it. fed ex tells cnn it's taking disciplinary action against that employee. mommy. >> you can't beat this. the little guys are sitting in santa's lap telling what they want for christmas and certainly on their list was mommy. and she shows up. army reserve captain dawn mccrackin bruce surprised her 2 and 4-year-old sons. this was at a mall in pennsylvania. she had returned from duty in iraq. as we get close to the top of the hour coming up next we're talking about the president's approval numbers. they're actually going up. why? our political director has the answer. he joins me next. stay with me. [ nadine ] buzzzz, bzzzz, bzzzz, bzzzz,

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new poll numbers, a good sign for the president and his re-election possibilities. the president's approval rating now at 49%. our senior political editor, mark preston joins us now. mark, 5 percentage points, that's kind of huge in the world of polling. >> it sure is, t.j. "the wall street journal" has an editorial out this morning where they are critical of the republican congress saying that president obama is, in fact, more electable today than he was a year ago.

the reason being is because "the wall street journal," as some republicans, including john mccane on "the situation room" yesterday, said that the house republicans fumbled the ball on the extension of the payroll tax. in fact, as we've been reporting all morning and all last night, the house of representatives has left. they have adjourned for the year. they have not addressed this issue. that is very damming. president obama has been able to benefit from that. even more damming, let's look at these numbers right here, t.j. that's very interesting and very bad for republicans as we're heading into an election year. look how devastating it is right now. who has more confidence right now, the american voters in president obama or the republicans in congress when it comes to getting some of the major issues done? look at that, president obama has climbed six points since march while we've seen the republicans in congress drop eight points. look where they are right now. they are at 31%, t.j. can you imagine? how bad is that as we're heading into an election year.

one thing we should point out though, the fact of the matter is we've had several republican presidential candidates attacking one another all trying to put out their ideas and ideals. that certainly has hurt republicans as they're trying to rebuild their brand. when republicans do finally get a presidential nominee, expect for the republican party to come together and expect those numbers to get better. t.j.? >> mark preston, political director now. do i have it right? political director. >> employed, how about that? >> that works for me. we'll have your next political update in an hour. you know the spot, cnnpolitics.com. next hour "cnn newsroom" is coming up. $40 a week, that's how much the gridlock in washington could cost your family starting january 1 if congress does not do something and do it in the next ten days. the clock is ticking on your taxes.

-- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com all right. so some stories making thus. at 1:30 eastern a memorial that will be held at arlington national cemetery. 2 clock eastern time police in maine give us an update about the search for a 20 month old girl who has been missing since friday. then at